Popular Places in Tonga

Places in Tonga

Cheryl and I spent our 27th Anniversary in the Republic of Tonga! We docked at the city of Nukualofa--and were transferred to the Ohiei Beach Resort where we spent the next 5 hours--enjoying a beautiful beach, drinking cold local beer called Naka, eating a traditional Tongan feast and finally a Tongan Dance show that included fire dancers inside a huge cave named "Hina" that were absolutely amazing! The highligt however, as a by product of the many dance lessons Cheryl has "invited" me to the last several weeks---we did the Tango on the...

Nuku’alofa, it is fun just pronouncing the name of this capital city of Tonga. Tonga is made up of 176 islands and atolls and we grab the opportunity to kayak in these beautiful pristine waters! Our destination is Pangaimotu Island, a mere 1 mile kayak across the South Pacific. Going to the island was a nice paddle, well until Ron flipped his kayak. It did get scary for a moment but we had our life preservers on so he came right up out of the turquoise blue! The tricky part, besides grabbing hat and sunglasses before they stayed in Tonga...

“The world is full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” . . . Robert Louis Stevenson
Guess what? Tonga is a kingdom, and it has a real King! We got to see his palace, and we also saw the house he lives in (not the palace). After a couple of days sailing north from New Zealand, we arrived at the port of Nuku’ Alofa, the capital city of the kingdom. We are on the largest island of the 170 islands that make up the Kingdom of Tonga (only 30 are inhabited). Although Tonga is the poorest of all the Polynesian...

Not much going on this week except for topping off the tan. I am on Fafa Island at fafaislandresort.com in the Tongatapu Group, The Kingdom of Tonga. I have managed to get out scuba diving and snorkeling and also I have spent some quality time in a hammock, reading either a book or the inside of my eyelids.
I need the rest after the craziness I got up to last week. I finished off my diving in Vanuatu doing a 48 meter dive to the "Engine Room". Deepest I've ever been and I almost got lost inside the ship! The following day I went on the...

After skipping an entire day as we crossed the International Date Line last night, we arrived in Tonga this morning to less than perfect conditions and unfortunately had to anchor out in the bay rather than going pierside due to a rather shabby and inadequate dock. Taking the ship's boats, called tenders in this case, into the port slowed things down considerably and shortened our visit a bit. Though I did capture some nice images of the sea and the sky upon our arrival as well as a nice one of the tender coming back to the ship...
The city...

The journey from Tahiti was uneventful apart from the fight in the Casino! A high roller from Las Vegas accused a guy from Wigan of buggering up the poker game. The guy from Wigan responded by hitting him over the head with his chair. Both chaps left the ship this morning in Nuku'alofa [Tonga].
Lesley and I were woken by the Captain telling us they had reviewed the political situation ashore and had concluded that providing certain precautions were taken it would be safe to disembark. Large parts of the town were cordoned off and being...

Spent a couple of days waiting for my flight out to Fiji and just hung around in Nuku'alofa which isn't the greatest place. Did get my own room for 6 pound though which can't be bad. Wondered around the shops (of which there aren't many) and ate in the Friends cafe because it's about the only busy place in town. Took a wonder up to the palace and the streets are still pretty deserted. All the buildings were still covered in black and purple banners from the Kings death but I have seen some kids pulling them down so maybe it's getting a bit...

Left Toni's but he talked me out of flying to Haipaii for 4 days - I guess it was a crazy idea for the price. Got the ferry out to a resort island (even though he also tried to talk me out of that) as there is absolutely nothing to do in the city on Sundays - no shops, no cafes open and no people anywhere. The island turned out to be pretty quiet anyway (apart from on Sunday when loads of locals turned up also trying to escape the Sunday fun ban). I had a little beach fale to myself with a little oil lamp to read with and that was me for...

Dashed down to the docks from the Tourist office and just made the ferry to Eua. The place was eerily quiet and most people were wearing black sulu's with mat skirts around them. I had been warned that the trip could be quite rough but found with no horizon to focus on (it was either sky or sea alternately through the side windows) I had to try to get to sleep. Noon came and on came the stereo - it's quite funny listening to rap music with loads of old ladies sat next to you.
Didn't see any whales (hadn't really felt good enough to look)...

We went to the Royal Sunset Resort, a hotel on a tiny island just off the coast near the capital, Nuku'alufa. It is very pleasant but feels rather constricting as the island is so small and has no email contact. We have a morning in the capital and have just found a cafe for a brief snatch of contact with the outside world. You cannot even get international papers here.
I have uploaded a few piccies of our trip to the island school. We enrolled Gully and Kings for a morning. They helped the class of 6-8 year olds learn "This Old Man". The...

The engines seemed to scream in desperation the plane lurched skywards for the second time. Looking through the rain lashed windows into the pitch black, it was not clear that there was a runway down there to aim for anyway. I saw the occasional house or street light but nothing that looked well lit or big enough to land a 737 on. It's always in these moments that we suddenly become aviation experts, speculating that there must be a problem with the undercarriage or that the guidance system must be getting the wrong co-ordinates - or some...